New tax amnesty deadline

The window to partake in the tax amnesty law to whitewash undeclared assets will shut for the third time today, though the government could choose to extend the scheme again as on previous deadlines.

Private news agency DyN yesterday reported government sources had revealed that 650 million pesos had been collected since the amnesty was ratified by Congress in July last year, far short of the US$4-billion target set at the start.

The scheme involves exchanging undeclared cash in foreign currencies for energy bonds (BAADE) or certificates of deposit that could be used in real estate transactions (CEDIN).

On both occasions, in October and January, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s administration made the decision to push back the measure’s deadline, with both coming as relative surprises due to wide consensus that the initiative had fallen significantly short of expectations.

In fact, on September 30, the day before the first deadline, AFIP tax bureau head Ricardo Echegaray had recommended against extending the whitewash,” adding it was “very likely that President Cristina (Fernández de) Kirchner would announce on Monday (October 31) that (the measure) would not be extended.” The deadline had arrived with US$341.5 million having entered the state’s coffers.

On the second deadline of December 31, the measure was quietly prolonged via an Official Gazette decree, with the Central Bank revealing later that just US$570.6 million had been collected through the CEDIN real-estate certificate, by far the most popular of the two ways to whitewash undeclared cash.

The Kirchnerite administration had hoped CEDINs and BAADEs would reactivate stagnating real estate and energy sectors.

The Radical Party’s (UCR) secretary-general, Miguel Giubergia, confirmed the party will request an official report from the Central Bank on the measure’s results.